Media Roundup
Listening to this The Daily episode was more depressing than I would have hoped. The episode was about Trump’s arrest and arraignment, so that (to me) was good news. But listening to the reporter breathlessly talking about how deflated Trump looked — how much like a normal man he appeared to be, how he wasn’t allowed to talk in a courtroom?
I hate to be the one who says it, but this is how we got here. For Pete’s sake. It’s a courtroom. Of course he can’t showcase his buffoonery. Listening to this reporter, I had to ask myself: Who actually thinks of Trump this way, as this larger-than-life figure who exudes bravado? Besides himself and his acolytes? The answer, at least partially, and unfortunately, is the media. It really can’t resist its role in the making of Donald Trump. The problem is that their role is central in creating the very image I’m talking about. Hanging on every word (or the silence) of a known liar (at the least) is a heck of a move. And on top of that is this story being delivered by mainstream media in the “can he get out of this one?” tone like it’s a season of Dynasty. (And for the record, Dynasty would never.) He’s always been larger than life, and now he’s not! Hm, let’s rephrase maybe: The former president of the United States has been arrested for falsifying records to cover up scandals as he ran for president. But seeing all these accounts of media outlets waiting for a sighting of this man, ostensibly so they could get the first or best shot of Trump in his element — when they are creating said element — is something to behold. It is almost as if everyone took their places on the stage left in 2016, when they realized that they probably should have been doing stories about the candidate’s history and not about his escalator ride.
This reminds me of that documentary about The New York Times on Showtime a few years back — the Fourth Estate. It’s about how the Times covered Trump and I don’t think anyone at The Times watched it!
The other media story I’ve been thinking a lot about is the most recent school shooting in Nashville. That was just over a week ago as of this writing and it’s crazy how adjusted we’ve gotten to them. The shooting has set off protests all over the country, which is where the coverage belongs. But I noticed one angle in the immediate aftermath of the shooting that was particularly disturbing. Within hours of the shooting, there was footage available from the police body cameras and from inside the school. It showed the shooter walking around, apparently looking for someone to shoot, then later being cornered by police. It was an extraordinary inside look and no doubt a response from Nashville authorities who sought to make distance between their response and that of the tragedy in Uvalde, Texas.
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As a consumer of news, I suppose it is news. I began to think about what I’d do with this bodycam footage as a news editor, though. What value does it have? Yes, it is basic sharing of information. But to whose edification? If we are trying to de-glorify mass shooters by minimizing their identities, then why is it a good idea to share them in the process of being a terrorist in the moments right before they end innocent lives? The answer is that it isn’t a good idea. In fact, there’s more bad than good potentially coming out of sharing this video. Frankly, if we are going to keep showing graphic footage of mass shooters every time it happens, it is just a matter of time before we start thinking of them the same way you might think of jaywalking. What’s the big deal? I see it on TV all the time. Is that really want we want? I’m sorry — I’m not ready to get used to this carnage.
If the police need to show that they can respond quickly, they can do that directly with their superiors and local government without the help of the media. If what we want is for the government to do something about these shootings (as they do in most every other country, by the way), then that’s the story to focus on.
Speaking of, if you haven’t heard about the two Nashville legislators who were kicked out of the state House for protesting gun violence, here you go. Rightfully, this is where cameras are pointed now.
I still follow many of the journalists I used to work with, and some of them still work in media. I’m in the survivor Facebook group for the last paper I worked for and someone in it posted this absolutely depressing article. I remember the days when it was an issue that I was editing some suburban newspapers from 30 minutes away. Now the editor of the Lakeland Ledger is editing a paper in Illinois — a place it appears he has never been. This is an impossible position for Leon Tucker, and it sure says a lot about what the powers that be think about editors. Must be pretty easy, they’re thinking. All you have to do is Google the town and look at a map. Boom. Now you can edit their newspaper, from, uh, one thousand miles away. It’s not like he should be busy in Lakeland, Florida — one of the fastest-growing areas in the country, a city located in a huge county that is the same size as the state of Delaware. Like, what are they thinking?
I’ll go down swinging on this hill: If our local news goes down, so does our democracy.
Lastly, it has been one year since I was on the campus at the University of North Carolina to talk about journalism and democracy. And objectivity and book bans! This was me. Smack dab in the center of the NCAA finals — a game that UNC was playing in that night! Gulp. One day, I’ll have to share how that whole weekend went down. (hint, hint)
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